Cutting and mulching equipment is often used to cut away and/or clear brush including tall grass, plants, weeds, shrubs, wood chips, branches and the like. A common method for clearing brush involves the use of a rotary brush cutter. Rotary brush cutters typically have at least one blade that rotates in a plane generally parallel to the ground such that it uniformly cuts the brush. Some rotary cutters simultaneously operate multiple blades, thus providing a wider cutting area and reducing the overall amount of time needed to clear plant matter. Hydraulic motors typically power the cutting blades of a rotary brush cutter.
Some rotary brush cutters are configured as an attachment that can be mounted to a drive vehicle. As is known, drive vehicles of various types can be used to carry and operate different types of attachments. Examples of drive vehicles include, but are not limited to, tractors, utility vehicles, loaders, excavators, and other farm and construction equipment. These types of drive vehicles may be configured to carry one or more different attachments. One example of an attachment is a rotary brush cutter. Other examples of attachments include, but are not limited to, buckets, blades, forks, mowers, tillers, trenchers, delimbers, grapples, harvester heads, and many other attachments, depending on the size and type of drive vehicle being used.
A drive vehicle carrying a rotary brush cutter usually has a hydraulic power system that is coupled to the cutter attachment to drive the cutter's hydraulic motors, thereby powering the attached rotary cutting heads. Various types of drive vehicles can attach to and carry a rotary brush cutter. The choice of vehicle can depend on the type of application, the size of the attachment, and the power requirements of the cutter attachment. For example, in some cases a rotary cutter may be attached to a skid-steer loader or other similarly sized vehicle to clear small amounts of grass and brush. Such cutters may have a cutting width of between 40 and 60 inches, but can also extend up to 90 inches. Rotary cutters of this size may operate using hydraulic fluid flow of less than 30 gallons per minute (i.e., gpm), and in some cases up to between 30-40 gpm.
A brush cutter having an even wider cutting width with more powerful motors and cutting heads can be useful for applications requiring large amounts of ground clearing and/or clearing of larger brush and small trees. As an example, some brush cutters may have a width approaching eight feet and operate using a hydraulic fluid flow of about 100 gpm. The additional cutting width and the greater power provided by such cutters can allow faster clearing of rugged landscapes. Such rotary brush cutters are also heavy (e.g., approaching 6,000 lbs. or more), and require a large drive vehicle, such as a site prep tractor.
While large brush cutters exist, there is still a desire in the industry for brush cutters with improved performance. This includes, but is not limited to, a desire for rotary brush cutters having increased speed and capacity, especially for forestry applications and other situations that require the clearing of brush and trees from large areas. At the same time, there remains a desire to minimize the risk of injury to operators of rotary brush cutters, as well as to others in the vicinity of such operation.